21 May 2014

The first of Hyundai’s Tucson Fuel Cell CUVs arrived in Southern California; first retail sales are expected in the next few weeks. Under the Hyundai leasing program, approved lessees can drive Hyundai’s next-generation Tucson Fuel Cell for $499 per month, including unlimited free hydrogen refueling and “At Your Service” valet maintenance at no extra cost.

The fuel cell vehicles will be available at three select southern California Hyundai dealers: Tustin Hyundai; Win Hyundai in Carson; and Hardin Hyundai in Anaheim.

The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell will initially be offered to customers in the Los Angeles/Orange County region for a 36-month term at $499 per month, with $2,999 down. This includes unlimited free hydrogen refueling. Consumers have shown strong interest in the Tucson Fuel Cell leasing opportunity, with more than 200,000 unique visitors to the Tucson Fuel Cell microsite at hyundaiusa.com/tucsonfuelcell.

Tucson Fuel Cell owners will enjoy all the same services of the Hyundai Equus “At Your Service” valet program. As Equus owners have enjoyed since its introduction in 2010, should a Tucson Fuel Cell require any service, a Hyundai dealer will pick up the vehicle and provide a loan vehicle, then return the car after service to their home or business, at no charge.

Customers interested in the Tucson Fuel Cell can indicate their interest (the first step in the ordering process) beginning today by visiting Hyundai.com. Availability of the Tucson Fuel Cell will expand to other regions consistent with the accelerating deployment of hydrogen refueling stations.

Yes, H2 can and will be cheaply generated "at home" and at the H2-filling stations USING solar power. Solar PV panels in the neighborhood and local wind turbines can feed Direct Current into an H2-filling station's electrolyzer to produce H2 and stored locally and dispensed locally. This would be analogous to a SuperCharger station for BEV's that will use battery to store the output of the PV panels and local wind turbines so that BEV's can be quickly charged.

The first difference is that nearly all local FCV's will be served by the H2-station, while nearly all local BEV's will be charged at home and won't use the SuperCharger station except for out-of-town BEV's or BEV taxi or courier or delivery vehicles.

The second difference is that a FCV can be filled up in 3 minutes, while a BEV will take 10-20x longer, or 30 to 60 minutes to be charged up, meaning that an H2 filling station can be 10-20x more productive for a given square feet of area.

These two differences would means that the business case for H2-stations will be much stronger than the business case for SuperCharger stations to ensure that H2 stations will exist in much larger numbers that will be much more convenient for FCV owners. Extended-range BEV can travel out of town, but will need to find an out-of-town SuperCharging station to charge-up during the trip away from home. The higher availability of H2-filling stations will mean greater future customer preference for FCV's.

That being said, the next generation of electrified extended range vehicles may very be FCEVs for the very same two reasons you have given (longer range + very quick fill ups).

Near future BEVs with 200+ miles range will also have more takers for general uses, except for long trips.

Post 2020 longer range (up to 400+ miles) BEVs will probably compete with FCEVs but, time to fully charge would still be a challenge, at least until range is extended to a full day drive i.e. 600+ miles with 5-5-5 batteries.